Why Your Ancestry Search Should Start With Your Family Stories

Every family has a favorite story worn from the wear of being told and retold. The neighbors have heard it. The folks at church have heard it. When you bring someone around who is new and uninitiated, they have to hear it, too. Sometimes it’s a source of pride, sometimes it’s funny and makes everybody laugh and sometimes it’s been remixed a bit from what actually happened. It circulates through the generations, a near-mythological creation about some kind of survival, miracle or phenomenon. Those stories are family gems and they’re the perfect starting point when you’re tracing your ancestry, says attorney and professional genealogist Kenyatta Berry.

“Family stories are the foundation of your journey to uncover your past because most of our history has been passed down orally. Some of it may not be true because we all think we have some Native American person in our family history: the high cheekbones, the braids, the whole thing,” she chuckles, “but getting that information is really important.”

On PBS’Genealogy Roadshow, Berry is part of a team of experts who travel the country helping participants verify their connections to historical events and people — the Salem Witch Trials, old Hollywood royalty, the first African-Americans to graduate from college. The process, both on the show and in everyday life, is emotional and investigative, and Berry has pooled her knowledge and passion for the work into The Family Tree Toolkit: A Comprehensive Guide to Uncovering Your Ancestry and Researching Genealogy.

To drill down on some initial but critical facts, she suggests creating what she calls a “biographical sketch.” Write down as much as you know about your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Our culture can be hush-hush and guarded about giving up intimate details that can be necessary when you’re trying to get to the truth. Ask questions anyway. Interview living family members to fill in the gaps of what you know for sure and what you’re not certain about, what may be rumors and what’s absolutely accurate.

African-Americans experienced four major migrations, beginning with their forced transportation to America, then from the upper South to the deep South, both as part of the domestic slave trade. The third migration happened during Reconstruction, which a lot of people don't talk about, says Berry. “That's the migration of ‘I'm trying to find my people. If my child or husband or brother was sold, I may go find them.’” The fourth migration from the South to the North is the most well-known and you should ask your elder family members questions about any other places your ancestors may have lived besides the ones you already know.

A lot of our history is tied to the church, Berry says, so ask questions about that. What church did your family attend? If they migrated from another part of the country, where did they worship before they moved? How involved were they in the church? Those files can be a goldmine of information or, at the very least, introduce new names and locations to explore in your search. The same goes for military records.